Reprint  from  The  Michigan  Alumnus  February,  1913, 


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1RSITY 


THE  FOUR  NEEDS  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


The  needs  of  the  University  Library  can  be  summarized  very  simply : 

(1)  More  books. 

(2)  More  room  for  these  books. 

(3)  More  room  for  readers  to  read  the  books,  and 

(4)  More  high  grade  assistants  to  help  the  readers  to  the  books 

they  need. 

The  University  Library  today  has  315,000  volumes,  which  is  exactly 
twice  the  size  it  was  eleven  years  ago.  It  is  adding  over  17,000  volumes 
per  year  and  yet  the  men  in  the  different  faculties  are  clamoring  for  more 
books.  The  research  men  in  several  departments  claim  that  we  do  not  have 
enough  material  in  the  newer  fields  of  investigation.  A new  man  comes  to 
the  chair  of  dermatology  and  reports  deficiencies  in  the  literature  of  the 
subject,  which  must  be  made  up  if  his  work  is  to  be  effective  from  the  first. 
The  Engineering  Department  branches  out  into  new  lines  like  railroad  and 
sanitary  engineering,  and  at  once  there  is  a call  for  the  corresponding  pro- 
fessional literature.  A new  course  is  to  be  offered  in  the  Literary  Depart- 
ment and  it  is  found  that  the  Library  has  nothing  on  the  subject  worthy  of 
consideration.  The  deficiency  must  be  made  up  if  the  course  is  to  be  suc- 
cessful. The  Department  of  Political  Science  extends  over  at  least  seven 
fields,  and  must  have  enlarged  resources  in  order  to  do  its  work  properly. 
The  Department  of  History  is  reorganized  and  augmented  by  new  profes- 
sors, who  are  to  develop  courses  new  to  our  University.  Here  is  one  of  the 
most  crying  needs, — for  not  only  are  the  results  of  recent  historical  research 
in  many  lines  lacking,  but  the  great  historical  sources  stretching  back  for  a 
period  of  years  are  in  many  cases  wanting.  The  new  Graduate  School  is 
to  stimulate  research  throughout  the  University  and  we  are  to  be  besieged 
with  requests  for  books,  periodicals,  monographs,  theses  and  publications 
of  learned  societies  helpful  to  the  advanced  students  and  professors  in  many 
lines.  How  are  we  to  meet  these  demands?  Only  by  a larger  book  fund 
and  more  endowments. 

Yes,  but  some  one  will  say,  where  are  you  going  to  put  these  new  books 
if  you  get  them?  During  each  of  the  last  two  academic  years  the  annual 
accessions  to  the  libraries  on  the  campus  used  up  over  2,000  feet  of  shelving. 
In  other  words,  in  1910-11  the  volumes  added  to  the  book  stock  of  the  Uni- 
versity filled  approximately  700  three-foot  shelves,  and  the  last  year  showed 
a similar  record.  This  means  that  for  each  year  we  must  provide  ten  fif- 
teen-foot double-faced  ranges  of  book  stacks  to  keep  pace  with  the  present 
rate  of  growth  of  the  collections.  The  fact  that  all  the  new  accessions  are 
not  stored  in  the  General  Library  does  not  affect  the  problem.  The  depart- 
mental libraries  are  full  to  overflowing  and  when  we  add  a large  set  of  books 


to  the  Engineering  Library,  for  example,  we  must  take  back  to  the  General 
Library  an  equally  large  number  of  older  books,  in  order  to  accommodate 
the  new  ones.  This  is  problem  number  two.  And  the  solution  ? A new  book 
stack,  possibly  running  parallel  to  the  present  one  and  connected  by  bridges 
and,  let  us  hope,  provided  with  service  elevators. 

With  the  continual  increase  in  the  number  of  students  comes  a natural 
growth  in  the  number  of  library  readers  and  borrowers.  When  the  library 
building  was  opened  in  1883,  the  book  stock  consisted  of  38,262  volumes. 
The  total  number  of  students  in  the  University  at  that  time  was  1,440,  of 
whom  524  were  in  the  Literary  Department.  Today  the  total  number  of 
students  is  approximately  5,900,  of  whom  2,400  are  in  the  Literary  Depart- 
ment. The  collection  of  books  is  more  than  eight  times  as  large  as  it  was 
in  1883.  The  book  storage  capacity  of  the  building  has  been  quadrupled 
by  the  extension  of  1898,  by  the  erection  of  shelving  in  the  Reading  Room 
in  1904,  and  the  conversion  of  the  Old  Art  Gallery  into  stacks  and  reading 
rooms  in  1910-11.  A new  generation  has  come  into  being  and  the  methods 
of  study  have  been  revolutionized.  Instead  of  the  text  book  we  now  have 
lecture  courses,  collateral  reading  and  research  work,  requiring  a much 
greater  use  of  a much  larger  library. 

The  Fine  Arts  Department  has  opened  a new  field  to  the  students. 
The  lecture  courses  are  largely  attended,  and  require  a large  amount  of 
supplementary  reading.  The  work  with  the  debaters  increases  yearly,  neces- 
sitating an  increased  use  of  periodical  literature.  The  Pedagogical  Depart- 
ment has  increased  its  requirements  in  supplementary  reading  50  per  cent 
in  the  last  five  years.  The  huge  classes  in  American  history  have  a require- 
ment of  seventy-five  pages  of  reading  a week.  All  this  extra  reading  sends 
the  students  to  the  Library  more  frequently  and  means  heavier  work  and 
greater  congestion  at  the  delivery  desk.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  one-half  of  the 
books  drawn  from  the  desk  for  reading  in  the  Library,  are  taken  by  fresh- 
men and  sophomores.  Today  there  are  700  freshmen  in  the  Literary  De- 
partment (an  increase  of  one  hundred  in  one  year)  doing  collateral  read- 
ing for  their  English  and  European  history  classes,  and  they  must  devote 
much  of  their  time  to  reading  in  the  Library  for  the  rhetoric  assignments. 
Figures  speak  louder  than  words.  The  increase  in  the  Reading  Room  cir- 
culation is  shown  by  the  following  figures : 

1911:  Oct.  16,710,  Nov.  20,576,  Dec.  14,784 

1912:  Oct.  22,166,  Nov.  23,550,  Dec.  16,709 

The  congestion  at  the  desk  is  so  great  at  certain  hours  in  the  day 
and  on  certain  days  that  the  students  in  the  rear  of  the  throng  waiting  for 
books  give  up  all  hope  of  approaching  the  desk  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes, 
until  those  in  the  front  ranks  have  been  served.  Until  different  arrange- 
ments can  be  made,  there  seems  to  be  no  hope  of  a change  in  the  present  con- 
gested condition. 

An  imperative  library  need  at  Michigan  is  ah  undergraduate  reading 
room  or  study,  such  as  is  found  in  Goldwin  Smith  flail  at  Cornell  or  in 
Hamilton  Hall  at  Columbia.  The  college  reading  room  at  Columbia  is 
somewhat  more  than  fifty  feet  square  and  around  the  walls  on  open  shelves 


— 3 — 


are  placed  2,300  volumes  of  historical  works  selected  for  the  purpose  by  the 
Department  of  History,  and  3,000  up-to-date  books  of  collateral  reading 
chosen  by  professors  in  other  departments.  Books  of  required  reading  for 
the  several  courses  of  undergraduate  study  are  kept  on  special  reserve 
shelves  behind  a loan  desk  and  are  issued  on  call  slips.  These  are  borrowed 
from  the  General  Library  and  are  returned  when  no  longer  needed  by  the 
class.  A study  with  an  open-shelf  library  of  from  six  to  eight  thousand 
volumes,  selected  with  a view  to  the  needs  of  the  undergraduates,  would 
be  found  most  helpful  in  relieving  the  congestion  in  our  General  Library 
and  would  be  a great  help  to  the  students.  Only  by  some  such  means  can 
we  meet  the  increasing  problems  of  our  reading  room  service.  No  reference 
work  of  a higher  grade  can  be  done  by  any  one  but  the  Reference  Librarian 
until  the  clamorous  and  eager  underclassmen  are  waited  upon.  The  more 
serious  need  of  the  advanced  student  must  frequently  remain  unattended 
to  until  the  desk  assistants  have  a moment  to  recover  from  the  onslaught. 
Much  of  the  work  with  the  underclassmen  could  be  done  as  well,  if  not 
better,  if  it  were  segregated  in  a study  room  situated  in  close  connection 
with  the  class  rooms. 

Two  of  the  departments  have  libraries  in  their  buildings,  administered 
in  all  details  by  assistants  from  the  General  Library.  These  are  the  depart- 
mental libraries  of  Engineering  and  Chemistry.  The  former  (opened  in 
1905)  consists  of  10,000  volumes  including  architecture,  and  the  latter 
(opened  in  1910)  consists  of  8,000  volumes.  In  both  cases  there  is  in  the 
library  a complete  card  catalog  of  the  contents  and  these  cards  are  also 
duplicated  by  entries  in  the  public  catalog  in  the  main  library.  To  have  the 
assistant  in  charge  detailed  from  the  library  staff  is  much  better  than  to  leave 
the  departmental  collection  in  the  charge  of  a changing  staff  of  instructors 
or  laboratory  assistants.  The  departments  of  natural  science  at  an  early 
date  gathered  laboratory  collections  which  have  grown  into  departmental 
libraries  of  botany,  geology,  mineralogy  and  zoology.  It  is  hoped  that  in 
the  contemplated  science  building,  where  provisions  are  to  be  made  for  a 
library  room,  these  departmental  libraries  will  in  the  main  be  combined 
into  one  library  of  natural  sciences.  The  superintendence  in  the  science 
group  could  be  improved  and  the  cost  kept  down  by  proper  coordination 
of  the  single  collections  into  one  science  library,  with  an  adequate  reading 
room.  While  it  might  be  found  advisable  to  transfer  to  such  a science 
library  some  of  the  sets  now  in  the  General  Library,  the  relief  from  the  im- 
pending congestion  in  the  main  stack  would  not  be  great  enough  to  warrant 
serious  consideration.  The  main  collection  is  bound  to  grow  at  such  a rate 
that  this  relief  would  represent  shelf  room  for  not  more  than  the  normal 
accessions  of  a few  months. 

Lastly,  but  most  important  of  all  from  an  administrative  point  of  view, 
is  the  question  of  retaining  an  efficient  library  staff.  During  the  past 
month  three  of  our  assistants  have  been  called  to  better  paid  positions  in 
other  libraries.  We  appreciate  the  compliment  but  deplore  the  result.  Of 
course,  the  University  of  Michigan  has  long  been  a training  school  for  the 
faculties  of  sister  institutions,  and  the  Library  must  share  in  this  educa- 
tional work,  but  the  Library  can  not  meet  the  new  demands  upon  it  unless 


— 4 


112  061917974 


it  has  a staff  equal  to  the  task.  It  must  have  a corps  of  university 
graduates,  with  special  library  training,  and  special  fitness  for  the  work 
which  is  to  be  done  at  Ann  Arbor.  “It  is  a fundamental  principle  of  indus- 
trial efficiency,”  remarks  the  Library  Journal  editorially,  “to  use  your  exist- 
ing plant  to  its  full  capacity  before  increasing  your  plant  more  than  is  neces- 
sary to  keep  up  to  the  times.  New  machinery  and  new  books  must,  indeed,  be 
added  if  the  factory  and  the  library  are  to  be  kept  up  to  date,  but  the  effec- 
tiveness of  the  plant  is  not  measured  by  the  new  expenditure.” 

By  citing  the  above  quotation  I do  not  wish  any  one  to  infer  that  we 
have  joined  the  ranks  of  the  commercial  efficiency  enthusiasts.  Efficiency, 
we  are  told,  has  no  regard  for  traditions  and  if  you  begin  giving  up  college 
and  university  traditions  you  might  as  well  call  for  the  resignation  of  all 
the  teaching  staff  and  start  de  novo.  If,  in  considering  the  reinstallation 
of  any  particular  study  it  were  asked,  Does  it  pay?  you  would  have  to  answer 
it  by  asking  another  question,  What  do  you  mean  by  pay?  Are  you  always 
to  divide  the  cost  of  any  particular  course  by  the  number  of  students  and 
if  the  result  bears  too  great  a disproportion  to  the  tuition  fee,  must  we 
conclude  that  the  course  does  not  pay?  So,  also,  in  the  Library.  Are  the 
work  done  and  service  rendered  to  be  measured  merely  by  the  number  of 
volumes  handed  out  over  the  desk?  If  we  are  to  work  for  statistics  alone 
we  shall  have  no  time  for  the  reader  who  needs  help  in  understanding  the 
card  catalog,  or  the  periodical  indexes,  or  the  use  of  United  States  docu- 

merits.  t r 

This  brines  up  the  larger  question  as  to  the  aim  and  scope  of  a umver- 

sity  library.  “The  ideal  of  a library,  according  to  some,’’  said  Sir  Arthur 
Grant  vice-chancellor  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  “is  a collection  of 
fine  copies  of  books,  complete  in  various  departments,,  rich  m unique  speci- 
men^— all  beautifully  arranged  without  spot  or  blemish,  and  reposing  un- 
disturbed in  serene  dignity.  But  a truer  conception  of  wealth  tells  us  that 
it  consists  in  use,  rather  than  in  possession.  And  to  this  latter  conception 
the  University  Library  corresponds : there  is  an  immense  wear  and  tear  of  its 
books  but  after  all  it  was  their  raison  d’etre  to  be  worn  out  by  reading,  that 
the  ideas  contained  in  them  might  take  a fresh  start  in  the  minds  of  men.  We 
are  trying  at  Ann  Arbor  to  make  the  University  Library  a means,  not  an  end 
in  itself  We  expect  to  have  our  books  used.  It  was  a binder  for  a book 
fancier  and  not  a university  librarian  who,  when  complaint  was  made  that 
the  binding  of  a particular  book  was  not  what  it  ought  to  be,  said  reproach- 
fully, “Why,  you’ve  been  reading  it!” 

Non  ministrari  sed  ministrare  is  the  motto  of  the  entire  library  staff. 
We  have  a special  work  to  do  at  Michigan  where  students  come  from  every 
corner  of  the  globe.  Shall  it  be  said  of  our  library,  as  it  is  so  frequently 
said  of  the  great  foreign  university  libraries,  that  the  books  are  there  but 
they  do  the  students  little  good  because  of  difficulty  of  access,  or  an  insuffi- 
cient staff  of  assistants?  We  shall  fail  in  our  entire  purpose  if  we  do  not 
keep  the  library  alive,  up-to-date,  with  ample  accommodations  for  readers 
and  with  a staff  equal  to  the  growing  demands  made  upon  it  by  the  constantly 
increasing  body  of  students  and  professors. 

Theodore  W.  Koch. 


